#1
The writer describes the MB as having two components, when it's actually three. The third being technocrats (like Morsi) doctors, lawyers, educators, etc. It's this third group that the White House and the Western powers in general are so infatuated with.

#1
Keep thinking those happy thoughts, Tyler. I, too, was disappointed with Mitt Romney. Gingrich and Perry gave it their best shots but Romney ran the best campaign in the primaries. I didn't see anybody else. Ron Paul? Sorry. Not viable. Too old. Too kooky. Not enough testosterone. So in November, in the absence of a third party with viable candidates, I was left to choose between voting for Mitt or staying home. I voted for Mitt. Staying home doesn't accomplish anything.

#2
The question I've seen raised in the past few days is how the Democrats will fare once Barack Obama is no longer their candidate. After all, their previous two candidates -- Al Gore and John F. Kerry -- lost against George W. Bush, who was no Ronald Reagan. And certainly the Democrat's next candidate isn't likely to be groundbreaking, so he or she will have to run on his/her actual record, not the nobility of casting one's vote in his direction.

[Dawn] EVEN in a country where unspeakable violence is inflicted on the living as a matter of course, the visceral hatred evident in Monday's attack on an Ahmadi graveyard in Lahore is chilling. Shortly after midnight some 10 to 15 masked men scaled the walls of the burial ground. Armed with weapons and excavation tools, they either destroyed or pulled off the headstones of over 100 graves. Half an hour later, the last abode for those meant to rest in peace had been rendered a wreckage of broken stone and tile. The message sent out could not have been starker, signalling the extreme hatred shown by certain sections -- perhaps not too many numerically but inclined always to employ violent means -- towards a persecuted community. The latter's scars from the May 2010 massacre of scores in twin attacks on Ahmadi places of worship in the same city have not yet healed. That Monday's attack occurred in the Model Town locality and a stone's throw from the family home of the Sharif brothers is a matter of deep shame.

In the context of Monday's vandalism, the police have said that an FIR will be registered and an investigation launched. Tellingly, however, they say that it will not be possible to deploy coppers outside such graveyards. While the desecration must be condemned in no uncertain terms, criticism must also be reserved for this attitude -- which is far from restricted to police ranks. The Ahmadi community has long faced serious levels of persecution from various quarters, not least the state. Hostile legislation has been passed, people have been targeted and there are other instances of burial grounds being desecrated. The state needs to step up to its commitment to protect all citizens. Resources have to be found to protect members of the Ahmadi community and their properties.

The Obama administration may be trying to use the al-Qaida terror attacks on U.S. operations in Benghazi, Libya, to advance a growing global movement to protect Islam from criticism, according to one expert.

The issue is the defamation of religions resolution pending at the United Nations. It was introduced by Islamic nations and coalitions to criminalize any negative reference to Islam or Muslims.

Clare Lopez, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on the Middle East, national defense, WMD, and counterterrorism, said that after the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, the Obama administration made an impromptu decision to advance the Islamic agenda item it already had endorsed.

The Obama administration, and especially the Department of State led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are coordinating closely with the [Organization of the Islamic Conference] to achieve implementation of U.N. Human Rights Commission Resolution 16/18, which despite some cosmetic wording changes, remains the vehicle through which the OIC is determined to work toward the criminalization of the criticism of Islam in U.S. law, she said.

She also has specific areas of expertise in Iraq and Iran, having spent 20 years with the CIA. Now a private consultant, she is vice president of The Intelligence Summit and is professor at the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.